This paper examines Plutarch’s exploitation of Plato’s Symposium in chs. 4-7 of the Life of
Alcibiades. It aims to demonstrate that the Symposium is much more than a “source” for the
Alcibiades. Rather the Alcibiades invites an intertextual reading with the Symposium, and
becomes more meaningful when read with the Symposium in mind. In particular, knowledge of
the Symposium reveals how Plutarch has constructed Socrates’ attitude to and relationship with
Alcibiades as that of the ideal lover with his beloved.